In mid-December 2025, Macron invited New Caledonia’s politicians back to the negotiating table in Paris on Friday, January 16.

In his letter, Macron wrote that the anuary 16 session came in the footsteps of the July 2025 talks that led to the signing of an agreement project since dubbed the Bougival Agreement.

Macron said the intent was to “pursue dialogue with every partner” in the form of a “progress report” aiming at “opening new political prospects” to allow the French government to then continue discussions.

The main perceived goal of the Paris meeting was to attempt one more time to involve the FLNKS in a form of resumed talks so as not to exclude any political stakeholder.

In July 2025, after 10 days of intense negotiations in the small town of Bougival (west of Paris), a text was signed by all of New Caledonia’s political parties.

The project agreement intended to pave the way for the creation of a “state of New Caledonia” within France and its correlated “New Caledonian nationality”, as well as the gradual transfer of more powers from France to its Pacific territory.

‘Lure’ of independence
But just a few days later, on 9 August 2025, FLNKS denounced the Bougival text, saying it was a “lure” of independence.

It therefore rejected it in block because it did not address its claims of short-term full sovereignty.

Part of their demands was that just the FLNKS, as New Caledonia’s “only legitimate liberation movement”, should be engaged with the French state and that the talks should aim at reaching a deal for a short-term full sovereignty — what they term a “Kanaky deal”.

Speaking at a media conference yesterday, FLNKS president Christian Téin confirmed there would be no delegation in Paris on behalf of his party.

“The [French] government is trying to lock us and all of New Caledonia’s players into the Bougival agreement. We cannot condone that,” he told local media, stressing once again a “forceful” approach.

He said solutions to the current deadlock should be found “not in Paris, but here in New Caledonia”.

Aiming for elections
“One of the main objectives of the FLNKS, the party said, was now to aim for as many seats as possible at the next two elections scheduled for 2026: the municipal poll and the crucial provincial elections, scheduled to take place no later than the end of June 2026.

“For us, this is a strategic lever so we can affirm our independence project” . . .  “to send our message loud and clear to the whole of the country, to [mainland] France and at the international level,” FLNKS official Marie-Pierre Goyetche said.

New Caledonia’s other parties who signed the same Bougival document, both pro-independence and pro-France, all resolved to honour their signatures and to continue defending it and advocating for it with their respective supporters.

In the pro-independence camp, the “moderate” parties, including PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia) who had split from the FLNKS, citing profound differences, later voiced some reservations and wished for more clarifications and possible amendments on the text.

This regarded, for instance, questions as to how the envisaged transfers of powers would legally materialise and translate.

Pro-French parties react
Reactions to the FLNKS’ latest announcement to snub the Paris talks were swift on Tuesday.

They mainly came from the pro-France camp, which finally resolved to respond to Macron’s invite.

“FLNKS won’t come and it was predictable . . .  because an agreement is not in their interest”, said outspoken pro-France MP for New Caledonia Nicolas Metzdorf, who has been increasingly critical of France’s approach in relation to the FLNKS.

“FLNKS boycotts discussions in Paris. Unfortunately, this is no surprise,” said Rassemblement-Les Républicains (LR) leader Virginie Ruffenach.

She said it was now up to the French state to maintain the cycle of discussions “without giving in or going backwards”.

“There shouldn’t be a reward for empty chairs,” she said, adding that she saw the FLNKS boycott announcement as a “proof of irresponsibility”.

“Because New Caledonia is at the end of its tether and that, in this context, our responsibility is to go and finalise an agreement in Paris,” she said, in reference to New Caledonia’s dire economic situation.

‘Empty chair’ v ‘democracy’
“To accept that their absence should win over dialogue would be to admit that in the French Republic, boycott has more weight than votes, that an empty chair is worth more than democracy,” she wrote on social networks.

New Caledonia’s Finance Minister Christopher Gygès also commented on the recent announcement, saying: “It’s now time for this situation to cease. New Caledonia needs to move forward and rebuild itself.

“The [French state] cannot remain prisoner of postures. It needs to work with those who sincerely wish to move forward.”

Moderate pro-France Calédonie Ensemble party leader Philippe Dunoyer, who has been advocating for an inclusion of the FLNKS in future talks, said he was “disappointed” and “very surprised, in a negative way”.

“When there is no agreement, there are no prospects”, he told public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la 1ère.

Most of New Caledonia’s politicians are already on their way to Paris.

Agree to disagree on no agreement until 2027?
Since Macron’s invitation for fresh talks in Paris was issued, it was already met with reluctance from all sides across New Caledonia’s political chessboard.

Even on the pro-France side, the general feeling was that if fresh talks were meant to question the already fragile balances arrived at in Bougival, then they would be very wary.

“Because, you know, they were scared of fresh violence in New Caledonia because of a possible boycott from FLNKS,” Metzdorf said in December 2025.

“I think everyone is paralysed with fear.

“But I want to say it right now. If this new meeting wants to take us further than Bougival, it will be no.”

He said earlier in 2025, before Bougival, at a “conclave” held in New Caledonia with then-French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls, his pro-France political camp had already rejected a previous proposal of New Caledonia as an associated state of France precisely because it would lead to independence.

“We did this once and we will reject all the same any form of independence association a second time.

“We will vote against, including in Parliament and there will be no agreement at all, until 2027.”

Presidential election 2027
France’s next presidential election is set down for 2027.

In a letter sent to Macron in December 2025, Metzdorf and other like-minded loyalist (pro-France) political groups responded to stress the same: “If the exchanges that you are proposing on next 16 January 2025 were to revisit the political equilibriums of the Bougival Agreement, then the Loyalists will simply not support it”.

FLNKS already had strong reservations when Macron’s invitation was issued.

It recalled its outright rejection of anything related to the Bougival document and said under the current circumstances, these kind of talks “does not allow to create the conditions of a sincere and useful dialogue”.

A delegation from the FLNKS, including its president Christian Téin, was also in Paris for one week in mid-December and sought an interview with Macron.

It was envisaged to request an appointment with Macron in order to “clarify the framework, the objectives and the method for a possible resumption of talks” and “go back on the right track”.

But the meeting did not eventuate.

New Caledonia’s recovery
New Caledonia was engulfed in civil unrest in May 2024, following a series of protests staged by a “Field Actions Coordinating Cell” set up a few months earlier by Union Calédonienne (UC), the main remaining component of FLNKS.

The ensuing riots, burning and looting led to the death of 14 people, more than 2 billion euros (NZ$4 billion) of damage, thousands left jobless and a drop of 13.5 percent in the French territory’s GDP.

During the Paris talks on Friday, a significant part is also scheduled to focus on New Caledonia’s economic recovery and French assistance.

In December, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu mooted a plan totalling more than 2 billion euros over a five-year period to help the French Pacific territory’s recovery.

But the plan would also involve, beyond five years, that France should cease funding areas and powers that had already been transferred to local authorities over the past 20 years, under the previous 1998 Nouméa autonomy Accord.

Meanwhile, the French assistance plans cannot yet be translated into actions: they largely depend on passing the 2026 appropriation (budget) Bill, which has not been endorsed yet by a divided French Parliament with no clear majority.

There is also a recurrent backdrop of no confidence motions and — this week again — the spectre of a possible dissolution of the National Assembly to try and solve the current deadlock.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A newly established “drafting committee” held its inaugural meeting in Nouméa this week, aiming to translate the Bougival agreement — signed by New Caledonian political parties in Paris last month — into a legal and constitutional form.

However, the first sitting of the committee on Thursday took place without one of the main pro-independence parties, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), which chose to stay out of the talks.

Visiting French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls, who was in New Caledonia until the weekend, met a delegation of the FLNKS on Wednesday for more than two hours to try and convince them to participate.

The FLNKS earlier announced a “block rejection” of the deal signed in Bougival because it regarded the text as “incompatible” with the party’s objectives and a “lure” in terms of self-determination and full sovereignty.

The deal outlines a roadmap for New Caledonia’s political future.

It is a compromise blueprint signed by New Caledonia’s parties from across the political spectrum and provides a vision for a “State” of New Caledonia, a dual French-New Caledonian citizenship, as well as a short-term transfer of such powers as foreign affairs from France to New Caledonia.

Even though FLNKS delegates initially signed the document in Bougival on July 12, their party later denounced the agreement and said its negotiators had no mandate to do so.

On Wednesday, as part of a round-up of talks with most political parties represented at the New Caledonian Congress, Valls held a separate meeting with a new delegation from FLNKS officials in Nouméa, in a last-ditch bid to convince them to take part in the “drafting committee” session.

The FLNKS is demanding a “Kanaky Agreement” to be concluded before 24 September 2025 and a fully effective sovereignty process to be achieved before the next French Presidential elections in April 2027.

It also wants the provincial elections, initially scheduled to take place no later than November 30, to be maintained at this date, instead of being postponed once again to mid-2026 under the Bougival prescriptions.

But they were nowhere to be seen on Thursday, when the drafting group was installed.

Valls also spoke to New Caledonia’s chiefly (customary) Senate to dispel any misconception that the Bougival deal would be a setback in terms of recognition of the Indigenous Kanak identity and place in New Caledonia.

He said the Bougival pact was a “historic opportunity” for them to seize “because there is no other credible alternative”.

Indigenous recognition
The minister stressed that. even though this Indigenous recognition may be perceived as less emphatic in the Bougival document, the same text also clearly stipulated that all previous agreements and accords, including the 1998 Nouméa Accord which devoted significant chapters to the Kanak issue and recognition, were still fully in force.

And that if needed, amendments could still be made to the Bougival text to make this even more explicit.

The chiefs were present at the opening session of the committee on Thursday.

So was a delegation of mayors of New Caledonia, who expressed deep concerns about New Caledonia’s current situation, 15 months after the riots that broke out in New Caledonia mid-May 2024, causing 14 deaths, more than 2 billion euros (NZ$3.8 billion) in material damages and thousands of jobless due to the destruction of hundreds of businesses.

New Caledonia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have dropped by 10 to 15 percent over the past 15 months.

As part of the post-riot ongoing trauma, New Caledonia is currently facing an acute shortage in the medical sector personnel — many of them have left following security issues related to the riots, gravely affecting the provision of essential and emergency services both in the capital Nouméa and in rural areas.

UNI leaders said earlier they had signed the Bougival document because they believe even though it does not provide a short-term independence for New Caledonia, this could be gradually achieved in the middle run.

PALIKA and UPM, in a de facto split, distanced themselves from the FLNKS in August 2024 and have since abstained from taking part in the FLNKS political bureau.

On the side of those who wish New Caledonia to remain part of France (pro-France), all of its representative parties, who also signed the Bougival document, were present at the inaugural session of the drafting committee.

This includes Les Loyalistes, Le Rassemblement-LR, Calédonie Ensemble and Wallisian-based “kingmaker” party Eveil Océanien.

After the first session on Thursday, pro-France politicians described the talks as “constructive” on everyone’s part.

“We just can’t force this or try to achieve things without consensus,” Eveil Océanien leader Milakulo Tukumuli told local media on Thursday.

Since Valls arrived in New Caledonia (on his fifth trip since he took office late 2024) this week, he has mentioned the FLNKS issue, saying his door remained “wide open”.

“I am well aware of the FLNKS position. But we have to keep going”, he told the drafting committee on Thursday.

The “drafting” work set in motion will have to focus in formulating, with the help of a team of French officials (legalists and constitutionalists), a series of documents which all trickle down from the Bougival general agreement so as to translate it in relevant and appropriate terms.

Some of the most urgent steps to be taken include formalising the postponement of the provincial elections to mid-2026, in the form of an “organic law”.

Among other things, the “organic law” is supposed to define the way that key powers should be transferred from France to New Caledonia, including following a vote by the local Congress with a required majority of 36 MPs (over two thirds), the rules on the exercise of the power of foreign affairs “while respecting France’s international commitments and fundamental interests”

Tabled in French Parliament
The text would be tabled to the French Parliament for approval, first before the Senate’s Law Committee on 17 September 2025 and then for debate on 23 September 2025. It would also need to follow a similar process before the other Parliament chamber, the National Assembly, before it can be finally endorsed by December 2025.

And before that, the French State Council is also supposed to rule on the conformity of the Constitutional Amendment Bill and whether it can be tabled before a Cabinet meeting on 17 September 2025.

Another crucial text to be drafted is a Constitutional amendment Bill that would modify the description of New Caledonia, wherever it occurs in the French Constitution (mostly in its Title XIII), into the “State of New Caledonia”.

The modification would translate the concepts described in the Bougival Agreement but would not cancel any previous contents from the 1998 Nouméa Accord, especially in relation to its Preamble in terms of “founding principles related to the Kanak identity and (New Caledonia’s) economic and social development”.

In the same spirit, every paragraph of the Nouméa Accord which does not contradict the Bougival text would remain fully valid.

The new Constitutional amendment project is also making provisions for a referendum to be held in New Caledonia no later than 28 February 2026, when the local population will be asked to endorse the Bougival text.

Another relevant instrument to be formulated is the “Fundamental Law” for New Caledonia, to be later endorsed by New Caledonia’s local Congress.

The “Fundamental Law”, a de facto Constitution, is supposed to focus on such notions and definitions as New Caledonia “identity signs” (flag, anthem, motto), a “charter of New Caledonia values, as well as the rules of eligibility to acquire New Caledonia’s nationality and a “Code of Citizenship”.

Valls said he was aware the time frame for all these texts was “constrained”, but that it was a matter of “urgency”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Caledonian politicians who inked their commitment to a deal with France last weekend will be offered special police protection following threats, especially made on social media networks.

The group includes almost 20 members of New Caledonia’s parties — both pro-France and pro-independence — who took part in deal-breaking negotiations with the French State that ended on 12 July 2025, and a joint commitment regarding New Caledonia’s political future.

The endorsed document envisages a roadmap in the coming months to turn New Caledonia into a “state” within the French realm.

It is what some legal experts have sometimes referred to as “a state within the state”, while others say this was tantamount to pushing the French Constitution to its very limits.

The document is a commitment by all signatories that they will stick to their respective positions from now on.

The tense but conclusive negotiations took place behind closed doors in a hotel in the small city of Bougival, near Paris, under talks driven by French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls and a team of high-level French government representatives and advisers.

It followed Valls’ several unsuccessful attempts earlier this year to reach a consensus between parties who want New Caledonia to remain part of France and others representing the pro-independence movement.

The pro-French parties, for instance, have had to endorse the notion of a State of New Caledonia or that of a double French-New Caledonian nationality.

Pro-independence parties have had to accept the plan to modify the rules of eligibility to vote at local elections so as to allow more non-native French nationals to join the local electoral roll.

They also had to postpone or even give up on the hard-line full sovereignty demand for now.

Over the past five years and after a series of three referendums (held between 2018 and 2021) on self-determination, both camps have increasingly radicalised.

This resulted in destructive and deadly riots that broke out in May 2024, resulting in 14 deaths, more than 2 billion euros (NZ$3.9 billion) in damage, thousands of jobless and the destruction of hundreds of businesses.

Over one year later, the atmosphere in New Caledonia remains marked by a sense of tension, fear and uncertainty on both sides of the political chessboard.

Since the deal was signed and made public, on July 12, and even before flying back to New Caledonia, all parties have been targeted by a wide range of reactions from their militant bases, especially on social media.

Some of the reactions have included thinly-veiled death threats in response to a perception that, on one side or another, the deal was not up to the militants’ expectations and that the parties’ negotiators are now regarded as “traitors”.

Since signing the Paris agreement, all parties have also recognised the need to “sell” and “explain” the new agreement to their respective militants.

Most of the political parties represented during the talks have already announced they will hold meetings in the coming days, in what is described as “an exercise in pedagogy”.

“In a certain number of countries, when you sign compromises after hundreds of hours of discussions and when it’s not accepted [by your militants], you lose your reputation. In our country . . . you can risk your life,” said moderate pro-France Calédonie Ensemble leader Philippe Gomès told public broadcaster NC La Première on Wednesday.

Pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) chief negotiator Emmanuel Tjibaou was the first to face negative repercussions back in New Caledonia.

Tjibaou’s fateful precedent
“To choose this difficult and new path also means we’ll be subject to criticism. We’re going to get insulted, threatened, precisely because we have chosen a different path,” he told a debriefing meeting hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.

In 1988, Tjibaou’s father, pro-independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou, also signed a historic deal (known as the Matignon-Oudinot accords) with pro-France’s Jacques Lafleur, under the auspices of then Prime Minister Michel Rocard.

The deal largely contributed to restoring peace in New Caledonia, after a quasi-civil war during the second half of the 1980s.

The following year, he and his deputy, Yeiwéné Yeiwéné, were both shot dead by Djubelly Wéa, a hard-line member of the pro-independence movement, who believed the signing of the 1988 deal had been a “betrayal” of the indigenous Kanak people’s struggle for sovereignty and independence.

‘Nobody has betrayed anybody’
“Nobody has betrayed anybody, whichever party he belongs to. All of us, on both sides, have defended and remained faithful to their beliefs. We had to work and together find a common ground for the years to come, for Caledonians. Now that’s what we need to explain,” said pro-France Rassemblement-LR leader Virginie Ruffenach.

In an interview earlier this week, Valls said he was very aware of the local tensions.

“I’m aware there are risks, even serious ones. And not only political. There are threats on elections, on politicians, on the delegations. What I’m calling for is debate, confrontation of ideas and calm.

“I’m aware that there are extremists out there, who may want to provoke a civil war . . . a tragedy is always possible.

“The risk is always there. Since the accord was signed, there have been direct threats on New Caledonian leaders, pro-independence or anti-independence.

“We’re going to act to prevent this. There cannot be death threats on social networks against pro-independence or anti-independence leaders,” Valls said.

Over the past few days, special protection French police officers have already been deployed to New Caledonia to take care of politicians who took part in the Bougival talks and wish to be placed under special scrutiny.

“They will be more protected than (French cabinet) ministers,” French national public broadcaster France Inter reported on Tuesday.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz